Friday, December 31, 2010

A quiet week at the top of the standings, with @daveminella just inching away from the pack by a single point. Shouts out to @Brian_GP, @danzero and @ducatinewstoday for pulling off their Minellas. Had you guys been around earlier you would be pushing the top spots. The good news is, there is plenty of time [...]

Mozilla has released a new beta of Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo to keep the mobile browser in step with its desktop cousin, and it packs a number of important improvements. Perhaps the most noticeable one on Android is that you can now find Firefox in the Market, meaning future updates will be a smoother process -- just make sure you uninstall any previous beta versions before downloading from the Market.

So what's new in Firefox 4 beta 3?

Improved support for both software and hardware keyboards

Android-style menus

Better integration with other apps when opening a link

A save page-as-PDF option

Improved Firefox Sync with new 'add a device' feature

Full screen video and improved audio support

Copy and paste support in the URL bar

Developer access to a localStorage API and orientation events

After browsing for a while with beta 3, I'm definitely left feeling it's faster than the previous non-Market release. Some pages, however, still load about 30-40% slower than they do in Dolphin Mini (my current browser of choice). The new features are definitely key additions -- especially basics like keyboard support and copy/paste in the URL bar. Firefox Sync setup is an absolute breeze now, thanks to the 'add a device' option in both the desktop and mobile versions.

Firefox 4 is also a bit of a space hog, currently consuming about 21MB -- ten times more than Dolphin Mini. And while I dig the desktop-to-mobile Firefox 4 synchronicity, I'm not sure it's enough to make me switch just yet. If I start doing more mobile surfing (which would make Sync more useful to me) and Mozilla kicks up the speed and trims a little fat, Firefox 4 will definitely be a strong contender for the coveted default browser crown.

Check out the gallery, or if you want to jump right in, use the QR code after the break. For more information, release notes and troubleshooting tips, check the Firefox Beta for Mobile website.

Though the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is growing steadily, the platform is still lacking plenty of marquee apps. You can now cross one off the list, however -- popular password manager LastPass has arrived! Log in to the app, tap a site in your list, and the WP7 browser opens and LastPass logs you in automatically.

Right now, LastPass for WP7 is read-only, meaning it can pull down all your credentials which are stored in the LastPass cloud but it can't upload new sites from your device. The app also currently only works on sites with that use JavaScript, which LastPass states is an issue Microsoft itself has to resolve.

As with LastPass on other mobile OSes, we suspect you'll need a LastPass Premium subscription ($12/year) to use the Windows Phone 7 app beyond a trial period. We'll update this post as soon as we receive confirmation one way or the other.

The Fiat Yamaha team have been surrounded by hype this past few weeks. Not, as an outsider might expect, caused by a battle to re-sign the reigning champion: Rossi’s contract ends at the end of the 2010 championship, and he looks settled, happy, and at one with the bike he helped shape and tune into [...]

If MotoMatters.com has seemed to be relatively dormant over the past few days, there's a very good reason. MotoMatters.com HQ is being relocated, from the Netherlands' oldest university town to a small town in the east of the country, close to the city at the heart of Operation Market Garden. As a consequence, MotoMatters.com staff - or more specifically, your humble correspondent - is spending an inordinate amount of time on matters such as removing old wallpaper, packing up a couple of years' worth of MotoGP memorabilia, and sorting through those piles of papers that have been sitting there doing nothing for the past thirteen years we have been in the house.

It's hard to convey what some applications actually do through the use of static screenshots. Take apps like Dropbox, Fiabee, or Awesome Drop, for example. It's just not that easy to explain in two images how files get from your desktop to the cloud and then down to your phone. A video demo, however, could be a lot more useful -- and soon apps in the Android Market will be able to display them.

Right now, there are about 2,000 apps with newly-added videos in the Market but they aren't being displayed just yet. They're also available via the Market API, so some sites like Appsfire have already begun integrating the video demos into their own listings via the Market API. Check out AppsFire's Dropbox, Twidroyd, and Skyfire pages to see how helpful videos can be in illustrating an app's functionality.

So much for Firefox 4 already being feature-frozen! It now looks as though several additional changes may land before the final release of Firefox 4 lands in early 2011. Among them: tabs in the title bar.

As with Google Chrome, your tabs will only move to the topmost area of the window when maximized. The feature has yet to be delivered to the Firefox 4 nightly builds, but you can download experimental versions from developer Bill Gianopoulos. Windows and Linux versions are available at the moment. Gianopoulos states "These builds are essentially the same as the corresponding Official Trunk Nightly Builds" but notes that his builds include "not yet landed fixes for some MathML issues, and User Interface changes planned for Firefox 4, as well as bugs that I am currently working on or find particularly annoying."

Stop what you're doing, take a second and click the picture you see above. If you're reading on your phone, run to a computer -- you want to see this. Supposedly these are the specs for the European version of the HTC Thunderbolt, and they are amazing. Almost too amazing. According to HTCInside.de (a German HTC blog and fansite), the Thunderbolt will be released with the Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, Gingerbread, an 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, and support for 128GB SDXC cards.

Is it real? Heck, we don't know, and honestly, none of us thinks these specs are right. But we offer it as-is, for you guys to dissect in the Thunderbolt forums. Just don't go blaming us if your heart gets broken. [HTCInside.de (German) via Pocketnow]

Text entry on a small screen is a formidable problem; as can be expected, there are a ton of competing solutions, with Swype (and Swype-like keyboards, such as SlideIT) getting a lot of attention.

8pen takes a completely different tack to the keyboard problem, by eliminating it altogether. To paraphrase Bob Marley, "no keyboard, no cry." According to 8pen, by drawing "natural" gestures on your touchscreen, you'd be able to "write without viewing".

The idea is to give you a central graffiti-like area with a grid of characters. All gestures originate from the central area and terminate there, too. To type the letter "e", for example, you have to start at the center, swipe down, hang a left (crossing the green line) and go back to the center area. To type "l" (a lowercase L), you have to do the same, but continue one quadrant further, returning to the center dot from the top quadrant, having crossed both the green and blue lines.

If this sounds insanely complex, you're right. I'm no stranger to alternative keyboard layouts, and I know full well that switching input methods takes some getting used to. But compared to SlideIT, 8pen is downright painful. And yes, I will review SlideIT soon.

Still, if you're curious and/or masochistic, I've put up a QR code for 8pen after the jump. Enjoy! (I guess...)

Email as we know it is a fairly static beast; you get text, and maybe some links and images, but that's about it. After all, allowing email to run code within your email client or browser could be mighty risky.

On the other hand, there's lots to be gained by "interactive email." Imagine receiving a form, which you can fill-in right from within an email message; or getting a search widget that you can use right from within the message to get the exact content you're interested in.

That's what Microsoft's new Active Views for Hotmail tries to do. Microsoft has taken a bunch of enterprise partners, starting with Orbitz and Monster.com, and allowed them to run code right from within your email. Since the partners (and email content) are carefully vetted by Microsoft, potential security concerns are kept to a minimum allowing users to enjoy the power of interactive forms and search widgets without the danger of hidden malicious code.

As the platform grows, more and more enterprises will be able to send interactive email. However, being a Hotmail-only prospect (at least for now), and since it's mainly useful for large advertisers, it is uncertain whether Interactive Views will gain much traction. Still, it's an interesting experiment. Just in case you're still at a loss as to what Active Views actually is, Microsoft's kindly made a video explaining the whole thing, which we've included after the break.

Email as we know it is a fairly static beast; you get text, and maybe some links and images, but that's about it. After all, allowing email to run code within your email client or browser could be mighty risky.

On the other hand, there's lots to be gained by "interactive email." Imagine receiving a form, which you can fill-in right from within an email message; or getting a search widget that you can use right from within the message to get the exact content you're interested in.

That's what Microsoft's new Active Views for Hotmail tries to do. Microsoft has taken a bunch of enterprise partners, starting with Orbitz and Monster.com, and allowed them to run code right from within your email. Since the partners (and email content) are carefully vetted by Microsoft, potential security concerns are kept to a minimum allowing users to enjoy the power of interactive forms and search widgets without the danger of hidden malicious code.

As the platform grows, more and more enterprises will be able to send interactive email. However, being a Hotmail-only prospect (at least for now), and since it's mainly useful for large advertisers, it is uncertain whether Interactive Views will gain much traction. Still, it's an interesting experiment. Just in case you're still at a loss as to what Active Views actually is, Microsoft's kindly made a video explaining the whole thing, which we've included after the break.

During the winter test ban, MotoGP's equivalent of the dog days of summer, the social media website Twitter has turned into a goldmine for journalists, from both the traditional and the new media alike. With so many high-profile riders, managers, mechanics and other members of the paddock active on Twitter, nuggets useful for filling empty column inches keep popping up almost by magic.

Earlier this week, Trillian, one of the oldest third-party IM client developers, released its Android app. I've always found Trillian a bit gimicky -- kind of like a 'Super Mega' Windows Live Messenger, with more bells and whistles than I really need, and a bloated, hard-to-navigate UI as a result.

Trillian for Android, I'm sad to say, is no better. Ultimately, it's functional but it feels like the shedding of its beta moniker was more than a little hasty. If that wasn't bad enough, it'll cost you $5 from the Android Market.

Though the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is growing steadily, the platform is still lacking plenty of marquee apps. You can now cross one off the list, however -- popular password manager LastPass has arrived! Log in to the app, tap a site in your list, and the WP7 browser opens and LastPass logs you in automatically.

Right now, LastPass for WP7 is read-only, meaning it can pull down all your credentials which are stored in the LastPass cloud but it can't upload new sites from your device. The app also currently only works on sites with that use JavaScript, which LastPass states is an issue Microsoft itself has to resolve.

As with LastPass on other mobile OSes, we suspect you'll need a LastPass Premium subscription ($12/year) to use the Windows Phone 7 app beyond a trial period. We'll update this post as soon as we receive confirmation one way or the other.

We told you it was coming soon, but we didn't know precisely how soon: Wadlimir Palant has already pushed the first beta version of Adblock Plus for Google Chrome. It was just four days ago that TechCrunch reported that Palant had changed his mind about never releasing a Chrome port -- citing reasons like not wanting to maintain two unrelated projects and the availability of capable alternatives like AdThwart.

That's all changed, however, and AdThwart has become the foundation of Adblock Plus for Chrome. The first release includes improved filters, updated code to bring the extension more inline with its Firefox cousin, and better XHTML support.

AdBlock Plus' developer, Wladimir Palant, has had lots of time to convert the extension; after all, Chrome isn't exactly new. But so far, Palant has been reluctant to do the porting, due to the amount of work required and Chrome's limited blocking capabilities. Times have changed however, as according to TechCrunch, Adblock Plus is on its way. It won't be a complete re-write apparently, but based on an existing extension called AdThwart.

From an end user's point of view, having Adblock Plus for Chrome might not make a huge difference. After all, the existing options for Chrome do get the job done. But when you step back and look at the big picture, this is one more indication of the rapid rise of Chrome as a browser platform, and now, an OS.

Those cheeky, purse-squeezing capitalists over at Rovio have released yet another Angry Birds update. Not only does the latest version include some new levels ("Ham 'em High"), but you can now buy the Mighty Eagle. It's an in-app purchase, and it'll cost you either $1, a few British pennies, or a handful of Euro cents.

The Mighty Eagle is a new item that lets you skip the current level, and unlock the next. Despite paying $1 for the luxury, you can only use the level-skip once per hour. There will undoubtedly be a $5 Mightier Eagle in 2011 that removes the 1-hour limitation. The Mighty Eagle also introduces a new Eagle Feather achievement, which you can get by filling up a "destruction gauge." Chrikee.

In other news, if you haven't been following the Angry Birds industry, 50 million copies of the game have now been sold. Rovio promise that 2011 will be exciting, too: Angry Birds will be released on even more platforms, including every major video game console.

Freemake's free Video Converter was already a very solid app, handling more than 200 import formats and able to output converted videos for playback on a wide array of devices. In the recently-released version 2.0, however, one major piece of missing functionality has been added.

Freemake 2 now supports Blu-Ray burning, allowing you to output dozens of hours of downloaded video to a single disc. If you don't have a Blu-Ray burner, no worries -- Freemake claims their media conversion kung-fu lets them cram 20 hours onto a single-layer DVD.

The upgrade doesn't stop there, however. Freemake 2 also adds the ability to download and convert videos directly from popular sharing sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Metacafe. Beyond sharing sites, Freemake can also grab video from Hulu, South Park Studios, The Daily Show, Megavideo, and several others -- including a good number of sites in the red light district. There's also a more full-featured preset editor, giving you advanced control over your default conversion settings.

The .Net 4.0 framework is required, but Freemake will install it for you if it's not already on your system.

XBMC is a fantastic media center application, and while it works well for dedicated HTPCs, it also plays nice on desktop computers, alongside your other software. But now XBMC has hit the version 10.0 milestone with a plethora of changes and improvements. Here's a small sample of the goodies you can look forward to in 10.0:

Add-on support: The biggest change -- add-ons can now be browsed, installed, and updated from within XBMC itself, making it easy to change XBMC's look-and-feel or give it new functionality.

WebM/VP8 codecs: You can now watch videos encoded using Google's latest open-source video format right from within XBMC.

Twelve South is well known for their exclusive and stylish accessory designs for Apple products and most recently they have introduced the all new Compass stand for the iPad. You may recall back in April Twelve South was one of the first companies to release a quality iPad stand, also known as the Bookarc Stand. [...]

Mozilla has released a new beta of Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo to keep the mobile browser in step with its desktop cousin, and it packs a number of important improvements. Perhaps the most noticeable one on Android is that you can now find Firefox in the Market, meaning future updates will be a smoother process -- just make sure you uninstall any previous beta versions before downloading from the Market.

So what's new in Firefox 4 beta 3?

Improved support for both software and hardware keyboards

Android-style menus

Better integration with other apps when opening a link

A save page-as-PDF option

Improved Firefox Sync with new 'add a device' feature

Full screen video and improved audio support

Copy and paste support in the URL bar

Developer access to a localStorage API and orientation events

After browsing for a while with beta 3, I'm definitely left feeling it's faster than the previous non-Market release. Some pages, however, still load about 30-40% slower than they do in Dolphin Mini (my current browser of choice). The new features are definitely key additions -- especially basics like keyboard support and copy/paste in the URL bar. Firefox Sync setup is an absolute breeze now, thanks to the 'add a device' option in both the desktop and mobile versions.

Firefox 4 is also a bit of a space hog, currently consuming about 21MB -- ten times more than Dolphin Mini. And while I dig the desktop-to-mobile Firefox 4 synchronicity, I'm not sure it's enough to make me switch just yet. If I start doing more mobile surfing (which would make Sync more useful to me) and Mozilla kicks up the speed and trims a little fat, Firefox 4 will definitely be a strong contender for the coveted default browser crown.

Check out the gallery, or if you want to jump right in, use the QR code after the break. For more information, release notes and troubleshooting tips, check the Firefox Beta for Mobile website.